María Rosales, 39, is one of millions of less affluent Argentines locked out of ...
BUENOS AIRES - María Rosales, 39, is one of millions of less affluent Argentines locked out of the traditional financial sector. The former cruise ship worker lost her job in 2015 and has relied on her family for financial support to stay afloat since.
The nascent shift could shake up how people save their money in a market noticeable for a heavy reliance on cash, a paucity of bank savings and little trust in traditional banks or the volatile local peso, which lost half its value against the dollar last year. “I do not know if there is a sector in Argentina as behind as the financial one,” Stefano Angeli, chief executive of Rebanking, a digital bank which will start operations in May, told Reuters.As well as start-ups, international lenders are looking at getting into Argentina’s digital banking market. Banco Santander has said its digital bank will launch in the country soon, while Brazil’s Itau Unibanco said last year it was looking at opening online-only accounts in Argentina.
Lucas Llach, a former vice president at Argentina’s central bank who focused on financial inclusion, said the shift was logical, with so many people unable to access brick-and-mortar banks. “There is a market because there are many people who are not banked, who do not want the costs of traditional banks,” Wilobank President Guillermo Francos told Reuters.
A central bank official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said this could help force established lenders to become more competitive, something the bank has been pushing for to bolster savings accounts and shore up the local peso.
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